Professor Tao Ran, director of the pioneering rehab facility for ‘internet addicts’ at Daxong Camp at Beijing Military Hospital, opened his doors to the film-makers.

Medalia and Shlam shot for four months with unfettered access to staff and patients.

Interviews with psychiatrists, nurses and the teenage patients and their parents provide a multi-faceted view of the subject matter and its emotional, psychological and physiological effects.

“I am much younger than Shosh,” says Medalia. “I had the computer when I was young so I’m using the technology much more. We always had this discussion – jokingly – that I should be hospitalised,”

“I think she should be hospitalised,” adds Shlam.

Beneath the gentle repartee both women share the belief that the internet, in many cases, has led to a breakdown in interpersonal communication.

“It happens in Israel and America and all over the world,” says Shlam. “The rest of the world is not very serious about it. It’s a universal phenomenon – not only in China.”

“It is a global phenomenon,” says Medalia. “Kids in America and all over the world are playing the exact same games. Those games and those activities that they have online are their friends; they are social games. It becomes the way that they meet people; it becomes their way of communication.”

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